Joshua Zeitler

The Eiffel Tower Lift Has Only Women in It

One of them is afraid of falling in love
with an astronaut-in-training. If he should fail,

how could she compare with the thrilling
boredom of space travel, the slow-settling

dust on the moon? One spent all day trekking
the catacombs, is in the mood for a cheerier

skeleton. One is thinking about Bachelard’s
Poetics of Space, the woman next to her

about her ex’s finsta. They’re all quiet, grateful
to leave the ground, but disappointed in the rising

cost, the looping queue, the view: another skyline.
I don’t know what I was expecting, one says

flirtatiously. The quip’s recipient chews
her hair, still messy from a depression nap.

She’s staying in a sixth-floor garret near Place
de la Nation. She came alone. She’ll leave alone.

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Joshua Zeitler is a queer, nonbinary writer based in rural Michigan. They received their MFA from Alma College, and their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Foglifter, wildness, Pithead Chapel, and elsewhere. They are the author of the chapbook Bliss Road (Seven Kitchens Press, 2025).